Saturday, May 31, 2014

Sat May 31, 2014

(Reuters) -
Egypt's interim president has made it a crime to disrespect the national
flag or fail to stand for the national anthem, state media said on
Saturday.

Authorities have moved to
restrict protests and bolster their nationalist credentials since
then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Islamist President Mohamed
Mursi last year.

Some Islamist protesters added slogans or symbols to flags during protests after Mursi's overthrow.

Insulting
the flag would now carry a penalty of up to a year in prison or a fine
of 30,000 Egyptian pounds ($4,200), under interim President Adly
Mansour's decree, the state news agency MENA reported, quoting his
spokesman.

The red, white and black
Egyptian flag is ubiquitous in the capital Cairo, where vendors sell
the emblem on street corners and drivers fly it out of car windows.

It
has become a common sight at demonstrations and celebrations since a
2011 uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak - most recently as people
celebrated Sisi's victory in presidential elections this week.

Under the decree,
the flag and national anthem are considered "symbols of the state that
must be honored and dealt with reverently and respectfully."

The
law bans "raising, displaying or circulating the flag if it is damaged,
used or faded, or in any other improper way" as well as forbidding
adding slogans, pictures or designs to the flag, or using it as a
commercial symbol.

Since
Mursi's overthrow, Egyptian authorities have carried out a fierce
crackdown against his Muslim Brotherhood, killing hundreds of the
group's supporters during demonstrations last year and imprisoning much
of its leadership.

On Saturday,
the public prosecutor ordered the release of 228 Brotherhood supporters
in the southern province of Minya due to a lack of evidence against
them, the state-run al-Ahram newspaper's website said.

27 May 2014

Polling in Egypt's presidential election has been extended for a third day after low turnout.

Polls were due to close at 22:00 (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday, but
have now been extended to Wednesday, the Egyptian election commission
said.

The scale of turnout is seen as key to legitimising the
winner. Former military chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is the clear
frontrunner.

He is standing against only one other candidate, left-winger Hamdeen Sabahi.

It is the second presidential election since the 2011 revolution which toppled Hosni Mubarak.
The previous elected President, Islamist Mohammed Morsi, was
deposed by Mr Sisi in July 2012 following massive opposition protests.

Voting was extended for an extra hour on Tuesday, which was also declared a public holiday, in an effort to boost turnout.

_________________________________________

Analysis, by Kevin Connolly, BBC News, CairoAbdul Fattah al-Sisi, along with the interim government,
the official media and Egypt's powerful army have been acting for months
as though this election was a formality with victory for him
inevitable.

They may have overdone it to an extent which has
alienated some Egyptians - and left even those who like Mr Sisi not
seeing much point in voting.

At many polling stations soldiers on security duty have outnumbered voters and others have seen no voters at all for hours.

Extending voting into a third day might look a little
desperate - but it's tantamount to an official admission that turnout
has been worryingly low for the authorities.

A win for Mr Sisi on a very low turnout would damage his
authority as he takes office…..It would be particularly embarrassing for
him to secure fewer than 13 million votes.

That was the number recorded
by Mohammed Morsi the elected Islamist President whose removal from
office was led by Mr Sisi last year when he was still serving in the
army.

___________________________________________

Election officials also said they would enforce a fine of over 500 Egyptian pounds (£42/ $72) for non-voting.

Egypt's election commission said the extra day of voting was
to "allow citizens who could not cast their ballots because of residence
restrictions" to participate in the elections.

An election official added that part of the reason for the low turnout was the unusually hot weather on Tuesday.

Observers from Mr Sabahi's campaign estimated that turnout on Monday was 10-15% and even less on Tuesday.TIGHT SECURITY
The election is being held amid tight security, but voting on Monday passed off without major incidents.

Mr Sisi appeals to Egyptians who crave stability after years of
political upheaval, and anything other than an easy win for him would be
a source of astonishment, says the BBC's Kevin Connolly.

Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, banned as a "terrorist group", called for a boycott of the polls.

More than 1,400 people have been killed and 16,000 detained since authorities cracked down on the movement in July.

Mr Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders are now on trial on a raft of charges, including murder.

The Telegraph

Sisi has the backing of many of Mubarak's close circle of advisers, who hope
to gain the same power they had before the 2011 revolution

May 25, 2014

Richard Spencer

The man set to rule Egypt
for the foreseeable future claims to wear the mantle of the 2011 revolution
which overthrew his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.

Tell that to the government, or to the collection of old regime politicians
who are galvanising support for his election as president next week, a vote
many see as more of a coronation.

A raft of senior Mubarak-era figures are supporting former Field Marshal
Abdulfattah el-Sisi's campaign from behind the scenes, as they prepare to
regain the power and influence they lost – or perhaps even more.

"I supported and I still love Hosni Mubarak," said Haidar
al-Baghdadi, a former MP for the once ruling National Democratic Party and
an unashamed enthusiast for both Saddam Hussein and Syria's Bashar al-Assad.
The NDP is now officially banned, but its leaders are still powerful today
and include the current prime minister.

"Mubarak was a symbol of the country's security," said Mr Baghdadi,
who is organising campaign rallies for Mr Sisi. "Now I stand with Field
Marshal Sisi. He is a national hero, who has saved Egypt from the terrorism
of the Muslim Brotherhood."

Mr Sisi is overwhelming favourite to win the election, scheduled for Monday
and Tuesday this week, and usher in a new edition of the long decades when
former military men – Gamal Abdul Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak –
occupied the presidential palace.

Mr Sisi was defence minister when he overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood and its
president, Mohammed Morsi, last July.

At the time he promised to implement a
road-map to democracy, and many prominent supporters of the revolution
against Mr Mubarak backed him, including liberal figureheads like Mohammed
ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace prize-winning former head of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, and Amr Moussa, the Egyptian Arab League secretary
general.

Voters have already approved a new constitution, and the presidential
elections are due to be followed by parliamentary elections later.

But key parts of Mr Mubarak's regime, which the 2011 Arab Spring
revolutionaries thought they were emasculating, had their roles in the state
reaffirmed or even strengthened in the constitution, including the
judiciary, the police and the army.

The army's budget is not subject to government oversight, while it also has a
veto on the appointment of the defence minister for the next eight years – a
key role, given Mr Sisi's own use of that position to remove Mr Morsi.

Meanwhile, old regime figures are returning to office. General Mohammed
el-Tohamy, a former general who was sacked as head of Mr Mubarak's
anti-corruption agency by Mr Morsi after one of his staff alleged he used
the position to cover up rather than investigate Mr Mubarak's financial
dealings, has been made head of the general intelligence service, a position
seen in the old regime as the second most powerful in the land.

The current prime minister, likely to be kept on by Mr Sisi if he wins the
presidency according to those around him, is another old regime figure,
Ibrahim Mehlab, who combined a long career as head of a state construction
company with membership of the NDP's policy committee.

Both men were tangentially implicated in the embezzlement case which last week
saw Mr Mubarak jailed for three years, according to a review of the full
case files by an independent news website, Mada Masr.

Neither was charged with wrongdoing, and there were no direct allegations.

But it was Mr Mehlab's company that carried out much of the illegal
refurbishment to the Mubarak family homes at the heart of the case, and
which fraudulently charged the invoices to the government instead of the
president. Mr Mehlab personally oversaw some of the work, according to the
report.

The original investigator was the man who made the accusations against General
Tohamy – and he has since been demoted.

Supporters of Mr Sisi and the new order point to the fact that the
constitution limits his powers and makes it unlikely he will have the
untrammelled authority of his predecessors. But in some ways, that only
strengthens the influence of the country's old families and institutional
networks.

Hisham Mostafa Khalil, a former MP ousted when parliament fell with Mr
Mubarak, said: "With the new constitution, the power of the president
becomes very limited. He's accountable to parliament."

That accountability depends on what form opposition will be allowed to take
and on who manages to obtain seats. The Muslim Brotherhood, who were
latterly the main opposition, has been termed a terrorist organisation,
while the independent, liberal April 6 movement which helped organise the
2011 street protests has also been banned.

New political parties have been formed, but many of them, like Mr ElBaradei's
Constitution Party, are dominated by the old Cairo elite.

For some, like Mr Khalil, himself the son of a prime minister of the Sadat
era, this is only to be welcomed.

"In Egypt, historically, even before the 1952 revolution (which removed
the monarchy), when we had our parliament the MPs came from the big families,"
he said. "It remained like that till the end.

"A lot of the people from the Mubarak time you won't see again. Half of
them died, half of them are old. But you will see their sons and you will
see their cousins. It's just the faces that have changed."

Mr Khalil, who represented the Qasr el-Nil constituency in the heart of
Downtown Cairo, said he was still considering whether to stand again.
Another prominent NDP politician, Abdulrahim el-Ghoul, said he was retiring.

"I have divorced myself from politics," he said. "Forty years
of politics is enough for me," he added.
Asked who would take his place as MP for the deeply conservative area of Nagi
Hammadi in Upper Egypt, he said: "Probably my nephew Lt Col Mohammed
Abdulaziz el-Ghoul, who is an inspector in the general security directorate,
but the family haven't met to confirm that yet."

Most of the international focus on Mr Mubarak's former officials has been on
his immediate circle, and in particular the corruption allegations against
his sons Gamal and Alaa, and their associates.

But even before Mr Mubarak was finally toppled, some activists said the army
was tacitly encouraging criticism. It feared that the liberal economic
reforms they were implementing were undermining the economic vested
interests of army-run companies, which often appoint retired generals to
remunerative sinecure directorships.

Mr Baghdadi, and other Sisi supporters, are now open in saying that they want
to see an end to privatisation and a return to Egypt's earlier period of a
socialist state-led economy. Mr Sisi has fudged this issue, raising the
question of whether he will oversee a return to the old regime, or the even
older regime.

His economic programme, finally unveiled at the end of the week, laid heavy
stress on large-scale, state-led infrastructure projects, including an
attempt to resurrect an early Mubarak-era scheme to build whole new desert
cities for Egypt's burgeoning population. It was previously abandoned as
unrealistic.

Many, including Mr Baghdadi, also urge an end to the alliance with America,
and a return to the 1950s embrace of Russia.

Some liberals who supported Mr Sisi abandoned his project in the light of last
summer's mass killings of hundreds of Brotherhood supporters.

Mr ElBaradei resigned as interim Vice-President and has now returned to
Vienna, where he lived until 2009.

Others remain hopeful that there are enough checks and balances in the new
system to ensure gradual change. Many rely on the ambiguous role of Tamarod,
or "Rebellion", the protest movement which gathered signatures a
year ago calling on Mr Morsi to resign and organised the mass demonstrations
that were immediately followed by his removal.

It had support of many of the revolutionaries who overthrew Mr Mubarak two
years before. But since then, the movement has split, with anti-Sisi
renegades claiming that they had been duped, that elements of the "deep
state", Mr Mubarak's secret police and intelligence services, had
infiltrated the movement at an early stage and used it to engineer their
return to power.

Mr Khalil, the former MP, concedes that the first parliament will be dominated
in the early stages by supporters of Mr Sisi. But added: "After two or
three years, we don't know what will happen."

Indeed, the constitution insists the president can serve only two terms,
ruling out, in theory, a repeat of 30-year dictatorships like Mr Mubarak's.

Such polls as there have been in Egypt since the coup suggest the hysteria for
Mr Sisi is not as overwhelming as the mass media make out. But then, Mr
Mubarak was not as unpopular as some thought either – his last prime
minister, Ahmed Shafiq, managed to win 48 per cent of the vote in the 2012
presidential election run-off.

However, there is little doubt that the 54 per cent approval rating which the
Pew Research Centre estimated for Mr Sisi this/last week, along with a
boycott called by the Brotherhood and other opposition groups, will be
enough to earn him victory over the sole challenger, Hamdeen Sabbahy, a
leftist.

Mr Sabbahy supported both the protests against Mr Mubarak and Mr Morsi, and
fiercely opposes the Brotherhood. But his demand for a strong army with a
civilian president seems to cut little ice with the anti-Islamist base who
seem to think that if you are going to have a state based on law and order
and national security it may as well be led by a military man.

The Muslim Brotherhood and a raft of "soft Islamist" and liberal
groups are boycotting.

The police, who were in many ways the main object of the 2011 revolution,
reviled for their brutality and corruption, are now seemingly popular again;
two years in which they were largely absent from the streets have seemingly
made the heart grow fonder.

Brotherhood spokesmen always alleged that the police deliberately refused to
implement the rule of law during Mr Morsi's time in office in order to
undermine his reputation.

Mr Sisi himself has not made any campaign appearances and limited his
interviews to some unchallenging questions, mostly from Egyptian television
stations. He has stressed the need to eliminate Islamist terrorism once and
for all and to restore stability and law and order – old Mubarak
catchphrases.

As for personal freedoms, he said they should be matched against national
security concerns.
When asked about how long it would take to reach complete democracy, he said: "Twenty
or twenty-five years."

Electoral campaign posters for former Field Marshal Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi are abundant in every Egyptian town and city. Unprecedented in
its size and scale, this electoral campaign is arguably the largest
promotion of a political candidate in the country’s history.

Thus far, the cost of Sisi’s electoral campaign is officially reported
to be LE12 million, although there are speculations that it is closer to
the LE20 million maximum limit on expenditures.

This year the High
Elections Council doubled the campaign expenditure allowed by law during
the 2012 presidential elections.

This official figure of LE12 million
may well be understated as many private campaigners have joined in to
promote the former defense minister’s bid for the presidency.

In Cairo, Sisi posters can be found on just about every lamp post on
the Sixth of October Bridge, which spans the city from north to south.
Several massive billboards promoting Sisi are also unavoidable along
this lengthy bridge.

His official campaign posters feature images of the
former military chief grinning while dressed in suit and tie, along
with his campaign slogan, “Long live Egypt.”

Many of these posters have been defaced with the word “deddak” (against
you) spray-painted across them, or spattered with red paint to give
Sisi a blood-soaked image, and others have been torn down.

But still, Sisi posters have survived such attempts and can be found on
every street. Whether part of his official campaign, or private
promotions, the face of the 59-year-old, who is set to be elected, is
omnipresent around Egypt.

Private promotional posters — that are not directly linked to his
official campaign — feature Sisi usually dressed in his military
uniform. These posters and banners hang outside an untold number of
stores and businesses in Cairo, often with a message of endorsement from
owners, along with the name of the store or company and sometimes even
their contact information.

Yet is all this campaigning and are all these posters necessary for a candidate who is already poised to win the election?

“I think it’s necessary from the campaigners’ perspective,” said
Mohamed Menza, a specialist researcher of patronage politics, and
professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo.

“The main objective here is to have a very big show of popular support.
Campaigners are seeking to promote participation and encourage the
highest voter turnout rate possible, with the aim of exceeding the
numbers of those who showed up during this year’s constitutional
referendum,” he said.

The 2014 referendum held in January boasted a turnout rate of just over
38 percent, with a 98 percent approval rate. Sisi and his campaigners
are apparently seeking to gain higher voter turnout rates than those
cast for Mohamed Morsi in 2012.

In terms of promoting their candidate, Sisi’s campaigners “are likely
to achieve their objective. It is not only about winning the election,
but maximizing voter participation and winning it by a landslide,” said
Menza.

The professor pointed out that the campaign teams of former
presidential candidates Ahmed Shafiq (Hosni Mubarak’s last prime
minister) and Amr Moussa (Mubarak’s former foreign minister) are
directly assisting Sisi in his presidential campaign.

“There are lots
of individuals from among the middle ranking members of Mubarak’s now
defunct National Democratic Party helping to finance the Sisi campaign.
Plus there is a lot of personal assistance from businessmen who were
closely linked to Mubarak’s party,” he said.

The professor explained that there are several businessmen who sought
the patronage of Mubarak and his party, followed by that of Morsi and
his Muslim Brotherhood, and are now seeking Sisi’s support.

He gave the example of businessman Taysir Mattar, based in the
districts of Old Cairo and Manial, pointing out that many other such
businessmen have shifted their allegiances in accordance with the ruler
of the time, or his ruling party. Other businessmen have maintained
their allegiance to political figures from the Mubarak-era.

According to Menza, these businessmen, “notables and lesser notables”
have been campaigning for Sisi across the country by organizing popular
conferences, neighborhood-based campaigns, and are preparing to mobilize
their constituents en masse for Sisi.

Beyond Mubarak’s patronage networks, a wide spectrum of political
parties are also mobilizing their constituencies to vote for Sisi.
Across Cairo, the liberal Wafd Party, the Free Egyptians Party, the
ultraconservative Salafi Nour Party and the left-of-center Tagammu Party
have all hung-up posters and banners announcing their support for the
former field marshal.

Smaller and more obscure parties, including: the Guardians of the
Revolution Party, the Egyptian National Movement Party, and the Egyptian
Party also hung up Sisi posters, as has the Tamarod movement in Cairo.

From May to June 2013, Tamarod’s popular petition campaign was
instrumental in mobilizing millions of Egyptians against the presidency
of Morsi. While Tamarod has condemned the Morsi regime for its power
grabs and human rights violations, the movement has not questioned
Sisi’s human rights record.

Tamarod has repeatedly called on the populace to protest in solidarity
with Sisi to show the world — particularly the US, from which Egypt
receives billions of dollars worth of military aid — that Morsi’s
removal at the hands of the Armed Forces was not a military coup, but a
popular revolution.

Within Tamarod, several supporters of the only other presidential
contender, Hamdeen Sabbahi, have reportedly been expelled from the
movement for not siding with Sisi.

“People are afraid to support Sabbahi in public, against the
sure-winner,” said Menza. “The masses are generally not open to the idea
of challenging Sisi, and no businessman is going to invest in abstract
struggles, without clear benefits in front of him.”

Indeed, during the presidential elections of 2012 there were 13
candidates running for president, while in 2014 only one candidate is
challenging Sisi.

Businessmen and political forces are “trying to get closer to the
circles of authority while preparing for parliamentary elections,”
commented Menza. “Payback time is due during parliamentary elections.”

“Businessmen are seeking a piece of the pie,” he added. They may be
seeking political favors, tax breaks, or parliamentary seats.

Politicians and businessmen will continue to support the campaigns
around Sisi, especially “given that there is no real ruling party at the
moment.” Others are simply hoping for stability, benefits, and the
prosperity that comes from a strongman patron-leader.

According to Essam Abdel Aziz, vice president of the Tour Guides
Syndicate and a businessman in the tourism industry, “Stability will be
guaranteed, and the security situation will improve” under Sisi.
“Tourism is among the Field Masrhal’s foremost priorities. He has told us so himself.”

Abel Aziz continued: “Since the revolution the country’s tourism
industry has been hit hard. Most visitors have been frightened away by
the unrest and terrorism over the past three years.”

The owner of a hot-air balloon service in Hurghada, and a travel agency
in Cairo, Abdel Aziz explained that instability has resulted in tens of
billions of dollars worth of losses incurred in the tourism industry.
While some four million employees in this industry have either lost
their jobs, or are threatened with joblessness.

“Hundreds of hotels are empty, or have shut down. While most cruise
boats remain docked and out of business.” Likewise, his hot-air balloons
are grounded with very little demand.

Abdel Aziz commented that he hopes that the tourism industry will
return to generate its estimated $US13 billion of annual revenue (prior
to the 2011 uprising against Mubarak) when Sisi officially takes over
Egypt’s reins.

“Sisi has promised us that he would revive the tourist industry over
the next few years, and together we aspire to increase both our revenue
and our total number of visitors — from the 2010 figure of 14.7 million
visitors, by several million more.” Only around nine million tourists
have annually visited Egypt since 2011.

“(Former Presdient) Morsi had promised us that he would help us restore this vital industry, but did not care much about it.”

The businessman did not mention that armed Islamist groups have
dramatically increased their terror attacks nationwide since Sisi’s
ouster of Morsi in July 2013.

“Stability and security are urgently needed to get our industry and our
national economy back on its feet,” concluded Abdel Aziz.

According to Sheikh Abdel Rahman Hassan of the Islamic Jurisprudence
Center, “We are campaigning for Field Marshal Sisi’s presidency because
he is a pious and religious man. Moreover, we trust that he will be able
to root out terrorist groups like Ansar Beit al-Maqdes, Ajnad Misr, the
Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and other armed extremists.”

Sheikh Hassan’s center has a number of posters around Tahrir Square
with the image of Sisi and the words, “May I kiss your head please?” The
center’s phone number is on these posters identifying them.

Similarly the private ETAF advertising company has hung-up Sisi banners
around the Abdeen neighborhood, with the name of their company, and
their phone numbers on them.

The company’s spokesman did not comment as to how much his
eight-foot-long banners cost or why they have the company’s contact
information on them.

Mohamed Lotfy, owner of a bookshop in downtown Cairo commented, “These
[private] banners hanging outside our shop are not ours. They belong to
other businesses and political parties in the area.”

“Nobody forces these businesses to put up campaign banners. They put
them up out of their own freewill. It’s their way of showing their
support for their candidate, and their love for their country.”

However, in Cairo no businessmen or companies can be seen promoting
Sabbahi’s presidential bid. The number and size of his posters and
banners pales in comparison to those of Sisi.

The only two parties openly backing Sabbahi on these posters in Cairo
are the Popular Socialist Alliance Party and the Karama (Dignity) Party,
from which Sabbahi hails.

While hundreds of young people can be seen wearing Sabbahi t-shirts,
distributing his campaign fliers to passers by, holding small scale
conferences, forming human chains, and flying campaign kites from
bridges along the Nile, these efforts are very clearly dwarfed by the
massive campaign machine behind Sisi.

Sunday May 25, 2014

41,163 people have been arrested and prosecuted since July, independent
statistical database Wikithawra said in a report issued Sunday. The
report reveals that only 4 percent of the arrests are connected to acts
of terrorism, with 89 percent related to political participation. The
report also states that 53 individuals detained within this period have
died in custody.

The report documents the security crackdown that started with the removal of Morsi on July 3, 2013, until May 15 of this year.

It provides the most comprehensive count to date of all of those who
have been arrested or faced judicial charges since Morsi's ouster,
regardless of whether they were released later, convicted or are still
on trial.

According to the portal’s count, 36,478 people were either arrested or
have otherwise been persecuted legally as a result of participation in
political events, 376 of which face trials in military courts.

An
additional 874 individuals will undergo military trials for criminal
charges, with 1,714 facing charges related to terrorism.

142 people have
been arrested in protests calling for social demands, with 87 detained
because of workers’ protests, and 415 having been arrested in sectarian
events. Additionally, 1,453 people have been arrested for breaking
curfew, which was enacted shortly after Morsi's removal, with no
criminal charges.

The report indicates that the highest number of arrests occurring in
one incident took place during the dispersal of Muslim Brotherhood
protests on August 14, during which over 1,000 people were killed and
9,759 were arrested.

This is followed by clashes between Muslim
Brotherhood supporters and security forces, which took place on August
16, and in which 2,652 people were arrested. The third highest number of
people detained in one incident occurred on the third anniversary of
the January 25 revolution, when 1,532 were arrested, either on the spot
or subpoenaed later in relation to the events.

The detained include 926 minors, 4,768 students and 166 journalists.

Wikithawra is an online portal that aims to document the events of the January 25 revolution since 2011.

Cairo has received 15 armoured vehicles from the United Arab Emirates,
to aid in securing next week’s presidential election. The vehicles were
transported by army planes and were handed over to Egypt's interior
ministry, an airport source told state agency MENA.

Militant attacks, primarily targeting security forces, have become common since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by the military last summer amid mass protests against his rule. Over five hundred security personnel have been killed in the attacks. .
During the January referendum on the new constitution, a bomb exploded in central Cairo. No one was injured in the blast.

Egyptians will go to the polls on 26 and 27 May.

The UAE has been one of the most vocal supporters of the ouster of
Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and Egypt's interim authorities.

Dozens of civilians have been subjected to enforced disappearance and
held for months in secret detention at an Egyptian military camp, where
they are subjected to torture and other ill-treatment to make them
confess to crimes, according to shocking new evidence gathered by
Amnesty International.

Egyptian lawyers and activists have
a list of at least 30 civilians who are reportedly being held in secret
at Al Azouly prison inside Al Galaa Military Camp in Ismailia, 130km
north-east of Cairo.

Former detainees there have told Amnesty
International that many more – possibly up to 400 – could be held in the
three-storey prison block. The detainees have not been charged or
referred to prosecutors or courts, and have had no access to their
lawyers or families.

“These are practices associated with
the darkest hours of military and Mubarak’s rule. Egypt’s military
cannot run roughshod over detainees’ rights like this,” said Hassiba
Hadj-Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa Programme Deputy Director at
Amnesty international.

The authorities must immediately inform
the families and lawyers of all those being held in secret at Al Galaa
Military Camp or elsewhere. Anyone who has been forcibly disappeared
must immediately be granted access to doctors, lawyers and their
families.

They must be protected from further torture or other
ill-treatment, and released, unless they are promptly charged with a
recognizable criminal offence before being brought before a judge for a
fair trial.

“Reports of torture in Egypt have been steadily
emerging. Yet, what’s happening inside the prison is taken straight from
a torturer’s textbook and shows that behind the authorities’ rhetoric
of the road map to democracy and upcoming elections lies ruthless
repression,” said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui.

There must be full,
impartial and independent investigations into all allegations of torture
and ill-treatment, with all those responsible brought to justice.

Amnesty
International met with recently released detainees from Al Azouly
prison. They gave harrowing accounts of torture, including the use of
electric shocks, burns and other ill-treatment during interrogations at
the military camp.

Lawyers and activists have told Amnesty
International that enforced disappearances have been on the rise in
Egypt since November 2013. It is expected that the detainees being held
in secret will be brought before state security prosecutors after they
have “confessed” under torture.

In some cases, it appears that
individuals have been secretly detained for months, during which time
they were tortured to extract “confessions”.

Lawyers working on
state security cases, including those involving prisoners at Al Azouly,
described a systematic pattern where people are abducted from streets or
their homes and sent to Al Azouly, where they have no access to lawyers
or their families and the authorities refuse to acknowledge that they
were in custody.

The defendants are coerced to “confess” to a
crime or implicate others. Some of the detainees agree to confess once
referred to the state security prosecutor, to get out of the prison and
stop the torture. Lawyers told Amnesty International that they are never
allowed to attend the first investigation and they are not informed
about the date or time of the investigation.

“Torture is
absolutely prohibited under all circumstances and is a crime under
international law. Prosecutors, courts and other Egyptian authorities
must never use ‘confessions’ or statements extracted through torture or
other ill-treatment in any proceedings. Imprisonment on such a basis
constitutes arbitrary detention,” said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui.

Testimonies/cases

One prisoner recently released from Al Azouly military prison:
“The
military arrested me in January [2014]…and took me on the same day to
Al Azouly prison after they beat me in a military camp in my town for
four hours. I was held in Al Azouly prison for 76 days without seeing a
judge or a prosecutor, I was not even allowed to talk to my family. They
put me on the third floor of the prison in solitary confinement.

The
authorities there interrogated me six times. They took off my clothes
and gave me electric shocks all over my body during the investigations,
including on my testicles, and beat me with batons and military shoes.
They handcuffed me from behind and hung me on a door for 30 minutes.
They always blindfolded me during the investigations. In one
interrogation they burned my beard with a lighter.

The investigations
were held in another building inside the camp…the soldiers call it S1
and S8 buildings [which are military intelligence buildings]. I could
not see the investigators because I was blindfolded in all
investigations and handcuffed from behind. They wanted to know
information about protests and demonstrations, they asked about the
active members in the university. They wanted to know who funds
protests, who holds weapons and who buys them. They also asked me about
my affiliation and whether I belong to the Muslim Brotherhood…

“After
25 days I was transferred to another cell with another 23 prisoners.
Most of the persons in this cell were from Sinai. One of the prisoners
had burns on his body…he mentioned that they put out cigarettes on his
body. We were allowed out of the cell once a day to the bathroom before
sunrise, and for five minutes for all the 23 persons in the cell. The
food was very poor. I was then released without a prosecutor’s order or
investigations …they took me from prison and put me outside gate 2 of
the military camp.”

Another prisoner recently released from Al Azouly:
“I
was arrested from my home by security forces dressed in civilian
clothing in February. I was beaten upon arrest and then was taken to Al
Azouly prison. They questioned me 13 times. They blindfolded me,
handcuffed me from behind and took off my clothes…then they gave me
electric shocks all over the body including in my testicles.

I was not
allowed to call my family…I gave their number to a cellmate who was
released and informed them about my location. A man with us in the cell
called Haj Shetewy, he is from north Sinai…was suffering from torture
that he faced upon arrest by 101 Military Brigade in Arish.

They
inserted a hot steel rod in his anus…he was not able to go to the
bathroom for nine days. They did not treat him….he died in cell number
11 on the second floor. After the investigations they released me in
May.”

Amr Rabee is an engineering student
at Cairo University who disappeared after he was arrested from Ramsis
Street in the capital on 11 March by security officials dressed in
civilian clothing. His family did not know his whereabouts. They asked
in police stations, prosecutors’ offices, National Security and filed a
report with the Public Prosecutor’s Office on 15 March about his
disappearance. The authorities denied holding him.

Amr
Rabee’s family later received a phone call in April from a released
prisoner who told them that Amr was being held in Al Azouly military
prison. According to the released prisoner, Amr Rabee cannot move his
left arm due to a torture-related injury. On 17 May, more than two
months after his disappearance, Amr Rabee was brought before the East
Cairo Prosecutor’s Office.

A lawyer who was present at the time called
the student’s family, who rushed to the Prosecutor’s Office. They
arrived to learn that a detention order had been filed and that,
according to the official case file, Amr was arrested from his home in
Al Haram on 17 May – more than two months after his actual arrest.

The
family was able to see him for five minutes in the prosecutor’s office
and he mentioned that he was held in Al Azouly military prison and then
Al Aqrab prison in Tora. He has a dislocated shoulder.

A woman in a town 250 km from Cairo
told Amnesty International that her husband was arrested when the
security forces dressed in civilian clothing and police uniforms raided
their home in the middle of the night in January 2014.

Before he was
taken away, they gave him electric shocks in front of her. Despite
repeated efforts to find his whereabouts, she was finally able to see
him in Al Aqrab prison in May 2014. He bore signs of torture, including
bruises and cuts in his hands and arms and burn marks on his arms. He
also had a dislocated shoulder. He told her that they wanted him to
confess to involvement in an explosion that led to the killing of
soldiers.

Background
Al Azouly prison is
inside the headquarters of the Second Field Army Command. The camp
includes a military court, the prison and Military Intelligence offices.
The prison has three stories: the first floor has military detainees
facing trial; the second floor has a mix of civilians facing military
trials and individuals who are “under investigation” but who have not
been referred to a prosecutor or court; the third floor has more
individuals who are “under investigation”.

Amnesty
International was not able to determine exactly how many people are
being held in Al Azouly prison. Released prisoners say that up to 200
people can be detained on each floor, and estimate that there are 200 to
400 prisoners in total.

Released prisoners said that
the torture method used against individual detainees depends on the
suspect’s profile. Those accused of killing soldiers or police are given
electric shocks, hung on doors, burned, and sometimes whipped.

The
interrogations are held in a building 10 minutes away from the prison.
Detainees are blindfolded and driven in a military vehicle to the
investigation building before being taken to the first floor. The
investigations take place from 3 pm until 10 or 11 pm. Since they were
blindfolded, prisoners were not able to know whether the interrogations
were being conducted by Military Intelligence or National Security
officers.

Last week, Amnesty International launched a new global Stop Torture campaign,
which accused governments around the world of betraying their
commitments to stamp out torture, three decades after the
ground-breaking Convention Against Torture was adopted by the UN in
1984.

Middle East Monitor

Legal experts considered the recent presidential decree to raise the
president's monthly salary from EGP 2000 ($280) to EGP 42,000 ($5,900)
as a return to "tailored laws" since it is widely believed to be
designed for the most likely winner in the presidential race,
Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi.

Professor of Law Dr Ahmed Kamal said that the decree is a prelude to Al-Sisi's election as president of Egypt.

In an interview with Rassd,
he pointed out that all laws promulgated by the post-coup regime should
be put to a vote at the upcoming parliament in order to be enforced.

Dr Tariq Khedr, chairman of the constitutional law department at the
Police Academy and former governor of Damietta, said that the new
constitution forbids the president to amend his salary during his
tenure, which explains why the interim president issued the decree
before Al-Sisi's election.

Judge Emad Abu Hashem chairman of the Appeals Prosecution in
Mansoura, said that in Egypt now everything is possible: "we are in a
stateless, lawless country. All rights are desecrated. There is no
justice, no judiciary."

World Organization Against Torture

The undersigned organizations condemn the security
forces storming of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights,
Alexandria Branch, and note that such attack is an expected escalation, amidst
the growing incitement in the media, and defamation campaigns, which have been
targeting human rights organizations and human rights defenders in Egypt.

Egyptian security forces, alongside security personnel
dressed in civilian attire, raided the Alexandria Branch of The Egyptian Center
for Economic and Social Rights, arresting 15, including two minors, and two
ECESR staff, and confiscating several computers and documents. The arrested
were taken to the Alexandria Security Department where they were held, until
released hours later.

Security forces raided ECESR’s office while a press
conference was being held in solidarity with imprisoned labor activist Mahinour Al-Massry, who was sentenced
to two years in prison on charges of protesting. Al-Massry’s appeal was
recently rejected, and her sentence was reaffirmed. The press conference came
in solidarity with imprisoned activist Al-Massry, who was taking part in a
protest demanding justice for martyr ‘Khaled Said’, tortured to death by
security forces in 2010, the latter incident is considered a driving force of
the Egyptian Revolution in January 2011.

In addition, the undersigned organizations express
deep concerns about the sexual
harassment and molestation of females attending the press conference, by the
security forces, which can only be considered an attempt to discourage females
from participating in the public space.

The aforementioned press conference is part of ECESR’s
ongoing campaign against the Protest Law No. 107/2013, which was issued by
Al-Beblawi’s government in November 2013. It also comes in light of ECESR’s
ongoing court case, disputing the constitutionality of the aforementioned
protest law.

It is noteworthy that this is considered the second
raid on ECESR premises in the past 6 months, and the third since January 2011.

This raid comes in light of systematic and widespread
crackdown carried out by the interim regime of July 3rd on human rights
defenders, in an attempt to silence the voices of those speaking out against
human rights violations committed by the security state, and demanding justice
and fair compensation to victims of human rights violations.

Notably, this raid comes a few days before the
presidential elections in Egypt, scheduled May 26 and 27, a period expected to
enjoy a larger space for freedom of expression. Instead, the raid that targeted
the Egyptian Center only reflects a repressive atmosphere, and rising threats
to the existence and function of civil society organizations, impeding them
from executing their key role in Egypt’s transition.

The undersigned organizations request the immediate
release of all those detained and arrested for exercising their right to
freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and calls for a speedy end to
these unfair practices, including the police harassment of civil society
organizations and human rights defenders. The state should stop targeting human
rights defenders, and restricting their work. In addition, we call for
immediate investigations into the sexual harassment that females faced at the
premises of ECESR at the hands of the security forces.

Finally, the undersigned organizations articulate that
they will take all legal measures against those responsible for the raid of the
ECESR office, and will register a complaint to the High Commissioner for Human
Rights as well as the relevant United Nations Special Rapporteurs.

Signatories:

-Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights

-Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies

-Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights

-Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression

-Al-Nadim Center

-Nazra for Feminist Studies

-Hisham Mubarak Law Center

-New Woman Foundation

-Arabic Network for Human Rights Information

-Andalus institute for tolerance & Anti-violence
studies

-National Community for Human
Rights and law

-Egyptian Foundation for
Advancement of Childhood Conditions

-Center for Egyptian Women
Legal Assistance

-FIDH,
within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

-World
Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory
for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Daily News Egypt

An Alexandria court sentenced Tuesday nine activists, including
prominent lawyer Mahienour El-Massry, to two years in prison and an EGP
50,000 fine.

The activists were detained and convicted of blocking a road,
destroying a police vehicle, protesting without a permit and assaulting a
police officer outside the trial of policemen charged with the death of
Khaled Said.

Arrest warrants for the activists were issued on 9 December and the initial ruling on the case was announced on 2 January.

The protest in question took place in Alexandria on 2 December 2013
and was allegedly organised by Said’s mother, who refused to obtain
permission from the Ministry of Interior. “The protest is against the
police,” Said’s mother said. “How do you expect us to ask for permission
from the institution we are protesting against?”

El-Massry is currently facing trial on separate charges for an
incident that occurred in March 2013. Allegedly, a number of members of
the Al-Dostour Party were “assaulted by members of the Muslim
Brotherhood”, said Mohamed Ramadan, a lawyer representing the defendants
and a witness to the incident.

(Beirut)– Egyptian authorities should immediately release an Al
Jazeera correspondent who has been held without charge since August 14,
2013, Human Rights Watch said today. The correspondent, Abdullah
al-Shami, has been on a hunger strike for more than 100 days.

On May 12, 2014, the authorities transferred al-Shami from Tora
Prison, just south of Cairo, to an undisclosed location, amid rising
concerns that his health is deteriorating.

On May 14, his brothers,
Mosaab and Mohamed al-Shami, tweeted that Abdullah al-Shami was in
solitary confinement in al-Aqrab (Scorpion) high security section of
Tora prison, where they saw him.
His lawyer has told reporters that
al-Shami is under investigation for “spreading false news” and for
alleged links with the Muslim Brotherhood, but after nine months
authorities have not filed any charges. On May 3, a court extended his
detention for another 45 days.

“Practicing journalism is not a crime,” said Joe Stork,
deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“Egypt’s disregard for basic rights like free expression is nothing less
than shocking.”

The government should also release three other Al Jazeera journalists
and others who have been charged but against whom authorities have yet
to provide any compelling evidence that they committed any crime.

The three other Al Jazeera journalists, Mohamed Fahmy,
Peter Greste, and Baher Mohamed, arrested on December 29, 2013, are
standing trial on charges of “spreading false news” and “aiding a
terrorist organization,” a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood.

They are
on trial with 15 others accused of having ties to the Brotherhood and
“defaming Egypt’s image abroad.” They were refused bail most recently on
May 3, 2014, with the next session of the trial scheduled for May 15.

The continued detention of the Al Jazeera correspondents violates the
journalists’ fundamental human rights, as enshrined in the country’s
2014 constitution, as well as international human rights law.

Article 65
of the new constitution holds that “Freedom of thought and opinion are
guaranteed,” and that “Every person shall have the right to express his
or her opinion verbally, in writing, through imagery, or by any other
means of expression and publication.”

Article 70 of the constitution further affirms that “freedom of the
press, printing and paper, visual, audio and electronic publication is
guaranteed.” According to article 71, “It is prohibited to censor,
confiscate, suspend or shut down Egyptian newspapers and media outlets
in any way,” and, “no freedom-restricting penalty shall be imposed for
publication or publicity crimes.”

Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt
is a state party, likewise affirms, “Everyone shall have the right to
freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers,
either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through
any other media of his choice.”

Article 9 of the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights, to which Egypt is also a state party,
requires Egypt to protect the freedom of expression and the rights of
all to receive information.

Article 102 bis of the penal code allows for the detention
of “whoever deliberately disseminates news, information/data, or false
or tendentious rumors, or propagates exciting publicity, if this is
liable to disturb public security, spread horror among the people, or
cause harm or damage to the public interest.”

Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, who is favored to win the
presidency in an election later in May, in a lengthy interview with
about 20 editors of leading Egyptian newspapers on May 8, warned against “scaring people” with reporting that “creates skepticism or uneasiness in society.”

“Egyptian authorities should be addressing the serious problems that
journalists report,” Stork said. “Instead, they are trying to silence
the messenger, jailing journalists on the basis of laws that violate
basic freedoms.”

The Guardian

Artists from Europe, the US and north Africa support their local counterparts with works critical of the former army chief

Thursday May 8, 2014

Patrick Kingsley

Some of the world's leading political artists are stepping up
their efforts to produce street works protesting against the actions of Egypt's likely next president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

International
graffiti stars such as Sampsa, Ganzeer and Captain Borderline and the
painter Molly Crabapple have begun to create designs incorporating the
slogan "Sisi war crimes" in cities across Europe, the US and north Africa.

"It
seems like Sisi will easily fool the international community that the
majority of Egyptians side with him. All the images getting out there
are of squares filled with Sisi supporters, with little to no news of
the other side, unless it's of [Morsi's Muslim] Brotherhood. But there
are people out there who are opposing who are not part of the
Brotherhood."

Sisi's many supporters would dispute Ganzeer's perspective, as it is commonly believed inside Egypt that foreign politicians and journalists have sided against the government that Sisi installed last summer.

Ganzeer
and his colleagues, however, feel the international community has done
little to censure him and is fully reconciled to his expected election
as president next month. They believe that more should therefore be done
to shake it from its apathy.

"No Egyptian president will be able to survive without the support of international politicians," Ganzeer said.

The Finnish graffiti star Sampsa
was the first artist to create anti-Sisi work outside Egypt. Best known
for work that promotes fairer copyright law, Sampsa painted silhouettes
signifying the bodies of dead Egyptians on Parisian pavements and a
building in New York. The French artist Levalet,
the Tunisian calligrapher El Cid and others also have works planned,
and the Captain Borderline collective, the founders of Europe's largest
street-art festival, plan to collaborate with Ganzeer on a large mural
in Munich.

New-York-based Molly Crabapple
will draw work inspired by the cages Egyptian dissidents are locked
inside at trial hearings. "I'm disgusted with the way that the Egyptian
revolution has been overtaken by a murderous military dictatorship that
is in many ways worse than [ousted dictator Hosni] Mubarak," she said.

Ganzeer and his fellow Egyptian artists Zeft and Ammar Abou Bakr
will continue to create anti-authoritarian works in Cairo, despite
working in a context that is increasingly dangerous – a factor other
street artists said had motivated them to show solidarity.

"These guys are the pioneers of modern-day political street art,"
said Sampsa. "The big stars [outside Egypt] don't give a shit about
changing anything these days. But the guys down in Egypt, their work has
a point. Their political art comes hand-in-hand with activism."

Previously
largely free of artistic expression, Egypt's walls exploded with murals
and slogans following Mubarak's removal in February 2011 and the
graffiti was portrayed internationally as a symbol of the country's
revolutionary gains.

Making graffiti was never easy in the months
that followed. The authorities often whitewashed the murals and
suspicious bystanders sometimes mobbed the artists, but Ganzeer said it
had never been as hard as it was now. The increased policing of public
space, a new law curbing protests and a more aggressive public have made artists far more wary.

"The
output now is much fewer and far between. People are still doing
things, but maybe not with the same outpouring we saw in 2011 when there
were new pieces every week," he said. Ganzeer was arrested in spring 2011 for posting anti-military stickers in public.

Like many of his colleagues, Ganzeer has often created work against
the Muslim Brotherhood, but he now fears being taken for a member of the
widely loathed group.

"The moment anyone sees you on the street, you're
associated with the Brotherhood, and attacked very easily unless you
can persuade them that you're creating something pro-military. So it's
very difficult to create opposition work that hasn't just been made
quickly."

To protect themselves, he and others have developed a
technique that sees them add explicitly anti-authoritarian details to
their designs only at the last possible moment.

While painting a recent
mural on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, a road leading from Tahrir Square that
is famous for revolutionary graffiti, Ganzeer easily persuaded passersby
that the cartoon soldier he had drawn next to a pile of skulls was
mourning the deaths of innocent Egyptians. It was only when he added
blood to the soldier's mouth and then scarpered that the image, entitled
The Army Above All, took on a more sinister meaning.

Since Sisi
deposed Morsi last July following days of mass demonstrations, at least
16,000 Egyptian dissidents have been arrested, and thousands killed
during protests. The crackdown initially focused on Morsi's Islamist supporters before expanding to secular-leaning activists.

The
government and a sizeable section of society blame the violence on the
Brotherhood, and say strong policing is necessary to quell a wave of terrorist activity. Ministers also maintain the country is on the path to democracy, and use May's presidential election to support their claims.

"This
is not going to be an autocracy," Egypt's foreign minister, Nabil
Fahmy, told the Guardian on Sunday. "If you're not doing it right, we
will hold you accountable."

Providence Journal

A single judge in a single court in Egypt has sentenced more people
to death this year than the total number of people who were executed
last year in the rest of the world combined, with the exception of
China. In 2013, at least 778 people were killed as a result of capital
punishment laws. This figure does not include China, which does not
release information on the number of people it executes.

The tally
of top executioners for 2013 runs as follows: Iran put to death at
least 369 people, Iraq 169, Saudi Arabia 79, and the United States 39.
So far this year 1,212 Egyptians have been sentenced to death. And that
was only as of April.

These mass death sentences defy logic. They
defy international human rights law — to which Egypt is a party. They
even defy language. They are so unprecedented there is not even a legal
term to describe them.

Lacking proper legal terminology, journalists and
human rights organizations have referred to them as “mass death
sentences.” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) refused to sign off on additional
U.S. military aid to Egypt last week, denouncing the verdict as a “sham
trial.” But these court verdicts essentially amount to political
executions.

Criminal trials are by definition about individuals. And
each of the defendants should have been tried individually, not by the
hundreds.

In March, Judge Saed Youssef held court in a heavily
guarded government building in Minya. He sentenced 529 people to their
death, all of them supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi. His
verdict sparked an international outcry. But that didn’t seem to matter.

Last
week, he sentenced another 682 to death, including the Supreme Guide of
the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie. He did, however, commute to life
sentences 492 of the 529 who he had previously sentenced to death,
perhaps under pressure from Egypt’s Grand Mufti.

It is possible that his
second mass death sentence will be overturned or commuted. But
regardless, the effects of the verdict are chilling. And the timing is
important.

In less than a month, on May 26-27, Field Marshall
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will be installed as president of Egypt, and it
will be called an election. Some speculate that Sisi may pardon the
accused once he is president, in order to appear all the more
benevolent. This is what optimists believe.

What pessimists
believe is several degrees darker. Galal Amer, one of Egypt’s great
satirical writers, died on February 12, 2012 — exactly one year and one
day after the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak. Already skeptical
of the revolution’s accomplishments, and channeling a more ominous
version of the Brechtian dictum about the government dissolving the
people, he asked: Have the people gotten rid of the regime, or is it the
regime that is getting rid of the people?

Back then, military
tribunals of civilians had become commonplace, but the civilian court
system was still generally held in high regard as one of the more
independent state institutions.

By partially suspending military
aid, but not publicly referring to the ouster of Morsi as a “coup,” the
Obama administration is apparently trying to send a two-pronged message
to Egypt: We want to maintain a relationship, but we care about human
rights.

In issuing death warrants on an industrial scale, this Egyptian
court is also sending a two-pronged message. To the Muslim Brotherhood:
We’ll kill you all. To the world: We don’t care what you think.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Presidential hopeful Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi defended a controversial
protest law passed by the cabinet last november saying that
"irresponsible" demonstrations threaten the state.

He waived a question by Lamis El-Hadidi, who was co-interviewing him
with Ibrahim Issa, on whether he would heed calls by some for pardoning
25 January activists jailed for breaking the law saying : We will make
that call when we cross that bridge."

The Protest Law punishes violators with up to three years in jail and hefty fines for protesting without police permits.

El-Sisi said "he would take whatever decision needed to protect the
country from terrorism," in an answer to questions from the CBC and ONTV
anchors on whether he would pass an anti-terrorism law if elected
president.

The Guardian

Saturday 3 May 2014

Trial of three journalists adjourned until 15 May after brief hearing in Cairo court on World Press Freedom Day

Patrick Kingsley

The judge trying three al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt wished
them a happy World Press Freedom Day before refusing them bail and
adjourning their case until 15 May.

In a brief session on Saturday, one of the trio, al-Jazeera English's Cairo bureau chief, Mohamed Fahmy,
was allowed to leave the defendants' cage to explain to the judge the
nature of journalism. The judge, Mohamed Nagy, then adjourned
proceedings because Fahmy's lawyer had failed to turn up due to a
private emergency.

They
are charged alongside five students with connections to the banned
Muslim Brotherhood, and prosecutors have tried to show that al-Jazeera
is part of a pro-Brotherhood conspiracy.

But Fahmy, a
Canadian-Egyptian former CNN journalist, told the judge that it was
normal for journalists to have contacts on all sides of the political
spectrum – including both supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed
Morsi, and their liberal opponents, as well as members of Egypt's
military establishment.

"I have great relations with state
security, with the army and the intelligence," said Fahmy. "That's
normal, that's journalism, that's my job."

Later Fahmy told journalists: "I feel like the court is starting to understand what we do for a living."
This seventh session of the trio's trial fell on World Press Freedom Day, celebrating the rights of journalists.

During
a recess, Peter Greste shouted to reporters from the defendants' cage:
"We recognise the significance of the coincidence of this trial falling
on World Press Freedom Day."

Greste added: "You can't have a free
society without a free press. In Egypt today you know that you can't
provide balance as long as you can end up in prison like us."

Earlier, a lawyer for the five student co-defendants alleged that they had been tortured in prison.

Sohaib
Saad, Khaled Mohamed, Shadi Ibrahim, Ahmed Ibrahim and Anas Beltagy
were arrested separately to the al-Jazeera journalists, and – according
to a friend campaigning on their behalf – were initially told they would
be charged in a separate case.

"When they were arrested, the
police told us that they were going to be jailed for having maps of
Egypt and planning to kill police officers," said Sara Mohamed, a friend
of the five. "It was only later that they were going to be involved in
the AJ case. The boys started laughing out loud when they heard that."

A fourth al-Jazeera correspondent, Abdallah Elshamy, has been in jail in a separate case since 14 August, and remains uncharged.

Elshamy
also appeared in court on Saturday, along with dozens of demonstrators
arrested during a crackdown on Morsi supporters, and appeared severely
weakened due to his 103-day hunger strike. Shouting to journalists, he
said he had lost 35kg and prison authorities still refused to provide
him with medical assistance or even acknowledge his strike.

Elshamy
said he was living with 15 others in a cramped cell that measured three
metres by four, with no access to water for 12 hours a day. "Prison is
like living in a pit-hole," Elshamy shouted before journalists were
thrown out of the court.